Fall Wood Duck

[Gary Esman]

50D, ISO 100 - I now know I should have had this higher, EF 100-400 F/5.6, 1/4OO

Thanks for looking and all C and C welcome, and have a Happy Thanksgiving!

[Harold Davis]

great job with the exposure!!! the whites are a little over, but workable. you need some CW rotation. the duck is swimming down hill. easily corrected by pulling the ruler tool from bill tip to the bill tip reflection. should give you ~1.22 degrees. for my tastes, i'd give it some more canvas all around. seems tight. but i love the water. awesome light and a great job!!! big congrats!

[Doug Brown]

That's some beautiful water! Nice reflection too. The crop looks fine to me. I do agree about a little CW rotation. As you point out, ISO 100 is a bit low for moving avian subjects. The question that you didn't answer is what you'd do with the freedom that a higher ISO gives you. How would you distribute the 2 stops of light that you'd gain by moving to ISO 400?

[Lance Peters]

Love the water - gorgeous - nice reflection - although a tad tight on the bottom maybe.
Agree with the CW rotation - good pickup MR H an whites do appear a little over.
Ha is good with a clear sharp eye.

Good point Doug - what would you have done with the extra light???
Like it !!! - Good Show.

[Gary Esman]

Thank you for the comments! My answer would be to increase the shutter speed when I increase the ISO. Mr. Randy Stout taught me that one when we were shooting at a local sanctuary. It has helped a lot with recent shots. I did not rotate the original because he was actually swimming toward me and that is what I saw. Also a tiny bit more room at the bottom. I do find that Wood Duck eyes are hard to get a focus on. Not sure if it the red or what. Have a Happy Thanksgiving! Gary Esman.

[Doug Brown]

Good answer Gary. I probably would have used 1 1/3 stops for shutter speed (giving me 1/1000) and 2/3 stop for DOF and overall sharpness. Some feel differently but I don't think the 100-400 is at its best when used wide open.

[Harold Davis]

repost looks great to me. nice job!

[Randy Stout]

Gary:

Very nice colors in bird and water. Nice shooting angle to get a good reflection. When you have a nice reflection, I crop the reflection in the same way I would the main subject, meaning you don't want to crowd the reflection too much.

Interesting point about the red eye, often not seeming to be sharp. I have noticed that as well in many of my wood duck shots, rest of the bird is good, eye seems blurry. In some of mine, since I was using fill flash, the reflection can make the eye seem less sharp, but I do think it would be easy to blow the red channel on the eye and cause the sense of bleed over that looks unsharp.

I did check your image, and the eye isn't blown in the red channel, actually in the 220 range or so, but I did a version with a slight desat of the red channel, and it did seem a bit sharper.

If I have time, I will post that issue on the site and see what the consensus is.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Randy

[Jeff Cashdollar]

Repost looks much better, I never recommend 100 ISO it is too restrictive as you have discovered - well done.

[Alfred Forns]

In just about all of these ducks the eye looks goofy and you need to work on it, just the way they are.

ISO wise fully agree on raising for the stated benefits. Regarding the 100-400 I'm comfortable shooting wide open (great results) and will only stop down if shutter speed allows or bg will not be a problem, very misunderstood and underrated lens !!!!

Regarding the whites this is one of the most difficult to expose and you need just about ideal light for getting detail in the highlights and shadows ... even then some PS work needed !!!

Ver sweet image and love that water !!! Big Congrats !!!